I have been reading Ralph Bernstein’s Lean Insider via RSS for a few months and really enjoy it. He discusses Lean and how it is being applied to varied industries. His recent post Helping Schools Become Lean inspires me to think how Lean can be applied in new frontiers.
I added his great site as a link on this blog. Please check it out!
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Filed under Health Care, Improve With Lean
Toyota helps healthcare go ‘lean’ by Diana Manos from Healthcare Finance News.
For hospitals already on the lean journey, there is nothing new in the article, but I think it is exciting to see Lean being communicated to a wider audience of many hospitals.
I recently had a horrible experience in a hospital with a family member (I will post something soon about it) and it was clear they were not attempting Lean. The more hospitals “drink the Kool-Aid” of Lean, the better. Maybe I am an evangelist but I truly believe this with all my heart. This article will help spread the word!
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Filed under Health Care, Improve With Lean
Last week was crazy and I did not have a chance to post once. I have all sorts of stuff swimming in my head to share and it will be coming soon!
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Roger W. Farnsworth at Executive Thought Leadership http://ciscoetl.wordpress.com/ brought this great slideshow to my attention. For RSS readers, the slide show is available by opening this post.
I am impressed with a lot of what I have seen at http://www.slideshare.net/. For Lean thinkers, the power and richness of the visuals is a great lesson.
Vodpod videos no longer available. from ciscoetl.wordpress.c posted with vodpod
Filed under Uncategorized
Project Managers and Lean implementers frequently have to make presentations.
Rowan Manahan has a great series Presentation Masterclass at Lifehack.org.
There was another great post by Phil de Kock published A Checklist for a Good Facilitation on pmhut.
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Remember the Wendy’s commercial from the 80’s where the lady kept looking at hamburgers and asking “Where’s The Beef?” We need to take the same approach when assessing a process to determine where to begin our improvement efforts.
A Value Stream Manager advised me of a process problem they wanted fixed. The symptoms were obvious and had tons of waste, but it was important to investigate to find where the BEEF was that was causing the problem.
Similar to the 5 Why’s, keep pressing in to find the root of the problem. Usually it is deeper than it originally appears to be!
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Filed under Improve With Lean
I have been practicing Lean for 4 months now and love every minute of it.
When I meet friends or strangers who ask what I do, I try to share my passion for Lean. Usually my explantion is long-winded and technical which cause eyes to glaze-over. When I try to be brief, they think I am a person who goes in and eliminates jobs. Neither experience really captures what I do.
So I would like to question my readers for advice. How do you describe implementing Lean in 60 seconds or less to someone outside of work?
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Filed under Improve With Lean
Art Petty on Management posted some helpful articles lately that I think are valuable.
1: The Meeting is Never for Decision-Making: A Product Management Lesson I Learned at Matsushita
The meeting is the ceremony. All of the decisions are made individually. You never want to show up at a meting that you called without having reached agreement with each stakeholder ahead of time … Leaders invest in people they trust and have a sense for, and the ceremony of a group meeting is the wrong place to try and build your trust and credibility.
2: Leader: Are Your Meetings Straight Out of A Dilbert Comic Strip?
3: How to Improve a Dysfunctional Meeting Culture Without Removing the Chairs
… rave against the time-wasting, dysfunctional debating society events that masquerade as meetings in many corporate settings … Keep the focus narrow. Operations meetings are not strategy meetings and vice-versa … Manage the clock and the agenda maniacally … Every once in awhile, create meetings without boundaries for brainstorming, idea generation, market discussions etc. Operations meetings and process meetings must run like clockwork. Creative meetings are essential to feed the energy of the organization and the boundaries should be relaxed for these occasions.
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Filed under Improve With Lean, Project Management
Bryan at Training Within Industry posted an outstanding article (with pictures) about Square Watermelons. I love how the farmers questioned sacred cow knowledge and discovered a way to innovate!
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Filed under Improve With Lean
Endgadgetalerted me to this great new invention. Check out the 2 minute video to see these new “just-in-time” QUICKIES from MIT. Integrating digital pens and RFID into the standard post-it sounds like an incredible productivity tool. I would only hope the post-it holder would be wireless someday!
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Filed under Improve With Lean, Productivity
The great communicators at Common Craft let me know May 1st is RSS Awareness Day. There is an offical site at RSSDAY.ORG .
I think all Lean leaders should be aware of RSS feeds because it removes the waste of searching for new material. Sure the info is pushed to you but there can be a lot of time wasted trying to pull.
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Filed under Improve With Lean, Productivity
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